"But I tell you: love your enemies! ...Look at it like this: if you love those who love you, do you expect a special reward? Even tax-collectors do that, don't they? And if you only greet your own family, what's so special about that? Even Gentiles do that, don't they?" (Matthew 5:44, 46-47)
"The kingdom of heaven," he said, "is like a grain of mustard seed, which someone took and sowed in his field. It's the smallest of all the seeds, but when it grows it turns into the biggest of shrubs. It becomes a tree, and the birds in the sky can then come and nest in its branches." (Matthew 13:31-32)A friend tweeted a link earlier this evening to a story. A story that surpasses anything from my ordinary day that I might write about it. So I felt compelled to share it. As I watched this short video (about 5 minutes), I could see the life of Jesus bursting at the seams. This is why he came, to produce fruit like this. Check it out:
The first thing I saw was this: The very idea is full of what God's kingdom is about. Jesus came to launch a world where through his power we can do the impossible: loving those who can give us nothing in return for no reason other than it's how God loved us. Forgiving them completely. Drawing them to the person of the Messiah through love that is so powerful it cannot be resisted.
The second thing is just as significant: This video told the story of how other schools latched on to the idea and made it happen again. And before long, these kids are encountering the unconditional love of God wherever they go to play football. That is what I believe Jesus meant in the parable of the mustard seed. It starts so small - random acts of obedience that can be only explained by the fact that God's Kingdom has arrived. And it grows...and grows....and grows. Like a mustard seed grows into a tree.
It makes me ask myself: What can I do today that will plant a seed? That's all I need to do...God will take it from there.
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